Young anglophones are still leaving Quebec, but at much lower rates, find researchers

Having grown up in an English-speaking family in Montreal, Jeremy Schachter says the question of staying or leaving Quebec was a “very real” dinner-table conversation.

“So many of my friends have left. It’s just, people wonder about the future of the anglophone community,” he said.

Schachter himself moved to Toronto a year ago to join his girlfriend, who works as a social worker in the city. He is part of a long-standing movement of young English-speakers leaving Quebec to move elsewhere in Canada.

Data from the federal census shows that English-speakers are more likely to leave Quebec in favour of other provinces than French-speakers, but that the trend is slowing down.

This movement was especially strong in the 1970s and 1980s, said Simon-Pierre Lacasse, who recently wrote a paper exploring the migration of young anglophones out of Quebec.

“The ‘Anglo exodus’, as it’s often referred to, is something that’s really contingent to a specific period,” Lacasse told The Canadian Press.

In their research, Simon-Pierre Lacasse and student Meghan Rulli focused on young adults, who are more likely to move between provinces.

Their research paints a picture of how the rate of this migration has slowed down in recent decades.

Their research paper, published by the Quebec English-Speaking Communities Research Network, shows close to 20 per cent of English-speakers in Quebec left the province between the late 1960s and the early 1980s, with the net loss of around 121,000 anglophones in interprovincial migration between 1976 and 1981.

Between 2016 and 2021, the interprovincial anglophone migration was almost balanced, with a net loss of around 3900 anglophones in Quebec.

At the end of the most recent period, federal statistics reveal the overall English-speaking community in the province remained strong. Over 1.6 million Quebecers spoke English at home on a regular basis in 2021, according to the census.

This represents over 19 per cent of the Quebec population.

At the same time, the census numbers show that over 35 per cent of workers in the province said they regularly spoke English while on the job.

Lacasse said the numbers appear to suggest young English-speakers are better integrated in the province’s culture today than they were in the 1970s.

“To me, that was the big surprise. … If the goal is youth retention for the vitality of English-speaking communities, then maybe there is hope,” said Lacasse.

The researchers identified many “push” factors that might drive anglophones away from Quebec, including greater career opportunities elsewhere and economic concerns. Interwoven with many of these factors is the question of language.

“Language in Quebec, perhaps more than other provinces in Canada, is directly linked to identity and is politicized,” said Lacasse.

In 2022, the provincial government passed a bill that strengthened language legislation in the province. It imposed measures like French-only services for most Quebec residents and a cap on enrolment in some English-language colleges.

The bill also caused disruptions during the recent provincial election campaign after the election authority sent out French-only guides to all voters. A Superior Court judge temporarily suspended the bill’s provisions and ordered the agency to send out bilingual reminder cards to voters.

On Ki Lin, who was born in Hong Kong but moved to Montreal when they were eight years old, said they left Quebec to study at the University of Toronto mainly because they thought this was the best place to pursue their education.

Although Lin says financial concerns are keeping them in Toronto, the former Montrealer also noted having struggled to fully integrate into Quebec culture.

“There would be some people (who) would be very abrasive and very rude because my accent wasn’t the same as theirs. Or they would assume that if I had an accent, it meant that I wasn’t fluent enough to understand what they were saying,” said Lin.

The feeling that there is no space for English-speaking identities in Quebec lingers for many, said Lacasse.

“When I was living in Montreal, the overarching sentiment was that, you live here, but are you really welcome here? I don’t know. It was not so clear to me,” said Schachter.

This affects not only feelings of identity and belonging, but also professional development, with some anglophones feeling that they are not welcome in francophone workspaces, found the paper.

But English-speaking Quebecers’ relationship with the French language is also generational, said Lacasse, pointing out that those born after the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, a period of nationalist political and social reform marked by a strengthening of the French-speaking Quebec identity, were more likely to understand the importance of French within the province.

The paper also highlights that young English-speakers in Quebec are increasingly bilingual.

Speaking with The Canadian Press, Schachter expressed attachment to the French language. He said he was recently offended when a man sitting close to him at a hockey game became upset to hear the national anthem sung in French.

“Even though I wouldn’t consider myself francophone … I think that’s really offensive,” he said.

Lacasse added English-speakers may find it easier to move to the rest of Canada, while French-speakers may face language barriers.

Lacasse said he is curious to see what trends will appear from the 2026 census data, which is set to be released in early 2027, especially after a period of high political tensions around language in Quebec.

From their new lives in Toronto, Lin and Schachter both reminisced about Montreal and Quebec.

“I would never consider myself Québécois, really, but there’s definitely something special about Quebec,” said Schachter.